Color Chart: The Joys of a Pink Home

SOURCE: Sotheby’s

Our monthly series asks: How do you bring color into luxury design? Pink can be both grounding and joyful, writes Jill Krasny 

Ever notice how some homes captivate you while others don’t turn your head? The colors in the design scheme may be at play. Whereas white encourages feelings of calm and red gets people talking, pink, which our series on color in luxury design turns to next, can be quietly powerful. 

“It’s warm and soothing, but can also be joyful and energizing,” says Dane Austin, an interior designer based in Boston. “It softens architecture, and it warms cool light and creates a sense of welcome.” The color can easily be misunderstood, viewed as too “girly” or meant only for babies. But it’s surprisingly versatile, he stresses.

Villa Belvedere, a clifftop Italian villa with breathtaking views of the port of Capri, looks like something out of a postcard, says Austin. “There’s something so charming about the way that it’s set in the landscape,” he says, and the pink exterior helps it stand out against the greenery and clear blue sky. 

For Austin, who painted his own New England guest room Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster (a dusty pink) with lavender trim, pink is a crowd pleaser. “There are just so many shades,” he says, “I feel like there’s something for everyone.”

In Newport, Rhode Island, where pink conjures images of faded hydrangeas in late summer, the walls of a bedroom in Stone House read more salmon in shade, while a deckside reception room features two coral pink sofas.

“I love the touches of red,” says Austin, who finds the pink of the bedroom well balanced with the “warm wood furnishings and brass accents.” With these walls, he adds, “there can only be one real star of the show. Everything else takes a back seat.”

A beachfront mansion in Old Fort Bay—a gated community in the Bahamas—uses pink more sparingly, particularly in the bedroom, says Austin, where the richer, earthier tone is sophisticated. A paler shade is also used to great effect in a light-filled home office.

“The ombrè effect behind the bedroom wall feels earthy and grounded,” notes Austin, and the draperies pull from that color to stunning effect. “The pink enhances that beautiful Caribbean blue, which almost looks like a gemstone.”

By contrast, a laundry room of a contemporary colonial in Brookville, on Long Island’s North Shore, uses a saturated pink to give an otherwise boring space rock‘n’roll edge. It’s in keeping with its owners’ playful approach to color throughout the property.

“I appreciate the thought put into making a utility space somewhere that makes you smile,” Austin says. The laundry room is not a space for entertaining, after all.

Seafair, another oceanfront Bahamas estate—located, appropriately enough, on Harbour Island’s Pink Sands Beach—deploys pink in a more subdued way. The living room features a subtle pink stripe on the swivel chairs and a supersized pastel-pink sofa, while the rest of the space is kept tonal and neutral.

That’s a good thing, says Austin, because “when you use a hue like pink, it’s often best served with a healthy dose of neutrals, which keeps it from feeling too saccharine.”

SOURCE: Sotheby’s